WHILE THE Leeds defeat was hard to take as the Reds wasted several gilt edged chances, one glance at the BBC Videprinter on Tuesday night showed how far Stanley have come.
A certain Carshalton side were playing on Tuesday and long-term Reds fans will remember their 2005 trip to the Surrey club when the Reds needed a last gasp Paul Mullin goal to salvage an FA¿Trophy draw against the non-leaguers.
Fast forward four years and the Reds are competing on bigger stages for bigger honours - with Wembley in sight as they made the trip to Elland Road, the home to Champions League stars less that 10 years ago.
The facts were Stanley lost 2-0 to the League One leaders but, with famous Leeds names like Eddie Gray and Norman Hunter looking on, United boss Simon Grayson was quick to point out that Accrington were "the better team and had the better chances."
The woodwork saved the trophy favourites twice and if Stanley had had their shooting boots on then a place in the Northern final of the JP Trophy - and claiming a massive scalp along the way - could have been theirs.
And manager John Coleman knew that: "It’s a chance gone but we were wasteful in front of goal. We made a lot of chances and it is a worry we didn’t take them.
"I thought we had turned a corner as we have been plagued in the Football League by squandering chances but hopefully it is just a blip.
"Still it’s a huge achievement for us to come to Leeds and go home disappointed that we haven’t won.
"Leeds were one of my favourite teams as a kid and I watched the likes of Alan Clarke and Peter Lorimer and to be here in your own right is a dream.
"It’s a feather in the cap for myself and for the team - but we could have got at least one goal.
"I have got to pat the lads on the back though as they came and took the game to Leeds - I am proud."
If any Leeds fans - of which there were around 12,000 with eight coach loads of Stanley fans packed into one corner of the ground - thought this tie was over before it had begun, perhaps having their minds on Manchester United in the FA Cup, then they had to think again,
After going 1-0 up thanks to a deflection one cried "Come on Leeds put this to bed now" as, with United having lost just twice all season, defeat to a League Two side certainly wasn’t on their agenda and to them it was a case of how many goals their side could score.
A Neil Kilkenny header after the break made it two - it was a gift as the midfielder was unmarked from a Hogan Ephraim cross.
But then followed a list of Stanley chances with Leeds fans even poking fun at the Reds inability to make at least one of them count.
Coleman had put on Sean McConville and John Miles soon after the break, going three at the back as they looked for a way back into it with United two goals to the good.
And the duo could have got the Reds on level terms as Stanley stepped up a gear.
Miles, who had only been on the pitch a minute, had a shot which ex-Stanley loan keeper David Martin pushed onto the inside of the bar on 65 minutes.
And a minute later McConville had Martin beaten but he rolled the ball agonisingly wide of the goal - covering his head with his shirt in disbelief. Then it was Bobby Grant’s turn as he smashed a shot against the upright.
You did then get a sense then that Stanley’s chance had gone as Lady Luck was certainly smiling on the once mighty Leeds.
Their opener certainly had more than a sense of fortune about it with Ephraim's strike hitting Phil Edwards and wrong-footing Dean Bouzanis as the ball seemed to trickle into the corner of his net.
It was a body blow to concede so early but what goes around comes around is the saying but instead Stanley striker Michael Symes tried a similar shot but this time his was deflected wide of Martin’s goal.
Stanley continued to have their chances - captain Andy Procter rifling an effort over from the edge of the area although Bouzanis did also have to use his leg to stop ex-Barnet man Tresor Kandol slotting home before the break.
But the second came when Kilkenny had all the time in the world to head the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
United boss Grayson, celebrating his 40th birthday this week, put on a new forward line of Sam Vokes and Max Gradel as he perhaps thought, at 2-0, it was game over.
But Coleman made his changes and the Reds deserved to have got at least one back to give the travelling numbers something to cheer.
Instead the woodwork and wayward shooting denied them while Bouzanis had to pull off a wonder save to keep out Gradel as three would have been too flattering.
Coleman, meanwhile, was left reflecting: "We were abysmal in the first half against Oldham in our first JP Trophy game this season and it’s a tribute to the lads that we got this far after that.
"But if someone had said 10 years ago, we would be coming here and be disappointed not to have won, I would think they were mad."
